Winter Tarn Cheese

Winter Tarn is situated just outside Shap in Cumbria.

We farm 89 hectares in a less favoured area and the land rises to approx 900ft above sea level and is mainly on Limestone. This gives rise to one of the unusual features of the farm, a tarn that appears mainly in winter months when there is heavy rainfall and it can cover over 8 hectares. When this does happen we are a stopping place for many birds, geese, ducks and swans.

Only about half of the farm can be ploughed, so we have a simple rotation of undersowing spring cereals, wholecrop to feed the cows on in winter, with clover leys. The clover puts nitrogen back into the soil, which is beneficial to our land as being organic we do not use artificial fertilizer. Permanet pastures (those that cannot be ploughed). Our pastures are full of wild flowers and herbs amongst the grasses.

In 2009 we started to sell our own veal which we believe is a more ethical use of our male calves on the farm. They are reared in social groups in straw yards and are fed on natural cows milk with some nuts and roughage available

Sheep are grazed over the winter on the land. Any bought in cattle feed is made up of simple natural ingredients and fed at relatively low levels.

We have a wealth of wildlife on the land and it is not unusual to see 4 or 5 deer grazing by the woods. Hares are very prominent along with curlews, lapwings, skylarks, wrens, finches and swallows.

Barnard Castle Farmers’ Market

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The next Farmers Market will be on Saturday the 5th November on the Cobbles!